{"product_id":"the-wrong-end-of-the-telescope-9780802157805","title":"The Wrong End of the Telescope","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE 2022 PEN\/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy National Book Award winner for \u003ci\u003eThe True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) \u003c\/i\u003eand National Book Award finalist for \u003cem\u003eAn Unnecessary Woman \u003c\/em\u003ecomes a transporting new novel about an Arab American trans woman's journey among Syrian refugees on Lesbos island.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp's children. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot since the inimitable Aaliya of \u003cem\u003eAn Unnecessary Woman\u003c\/em\u003e has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina's singular own, \u003cem\u003eThe Wrong End of the Telescope\u003c\/em\u003e is a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian crisis.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabih Alameddine","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42959820324982,"sku":"9780802157805","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/1374\/6550\/files\/CoreSourceHub_1dd6a952-b43f-4376-b1dc-a6f44a14a947.jpg?v=1770499725","url":"https:\/\/ingramacademic.com\/products\/the-wrong-end-of-the-telescope-9780802157805","provider":"Ingram Academic \u0026 Professional","version":"1.0","type":"link"}